Deir Qeruh (Arabic: دير قروح, 'Monastery of Qeruḥ'; Hebrew: דיר קרוח) is a ruined Byzantine-period village in the Golan Heights, located within an Israeli national park, the Gamla nature reserve.[1]
The village was located near Gamla, a much older fortified town.[1] Deir Qeruh was founded in the 4th century CE, and a church and monastery were built there in the 6th century.[2] The village was abandoned in the mid-7th century following the Arab conquest, and inhabited again during the 13th and 14th centuries, in the Mamluk period.[3][2] A modern Syrian village rose at the site in the 20th century, and was again abandoned after the 1967 Six-Day War, when it came under Israeli control.[3]
The north-eastern part of the village is the best preserved, and includes a monastery centered around a church,[1] founded in the 6th century and dedicated to Saint George, who is mentioned on the lintel at the church entrance.[2] The church has a square apse - a feature known from ancient Syria and Jordan, but not present in churches west of the Jordan River.[4] After the abandonment of Deir Qeruh in the seventh century and the later resettlement of the site, the monastic complex was used for other purposes.[2]
